Concubinage

Concubinage refers to the state of a woman or youth in an ongoing, quasi-matrimonial relationship with a man of higher social status. Typically, the man has an official wife in addition to one or more concubines. Concubines have limited rights of support as against the man, and their offspring are publicly acknowledged as the man's children, albeit of lower status than children born by the official wife or wives.

In modern usage, the term concubine often denotes the status of a quasi-wife who is not legally married to a man with whom she lives. The man (but not the woman) may or may not be in an ongoing legal marriage with another person. For example, in a California court case involving inheritance, Rosales v. Battle, a Mexican court had decided that the plaintiff had been the concubine of the deceased, on the grounds that they "had maintained a relationship publicly comparable to a marriage for about four or five years and had always behaved as though they were married, even though they had not contracted legal matrimony."

In France, Concubinage is the official term for cohabitation of heterosexual and (since 1998) homosexual couples. Some benefits of married couples or those bound by PACS (civil union) may then apply. In jurisdictions with common-law marriage, cohabiting partners may become common-law spouses after a certain length of time.

Concubine

The term concubine generally signifies ongoing, quasi-matrimonial relationships where the woman is of lower social status than the man or the official wife or wives. Some historical Asian and European rulers maintained concubines as well as wives.

Historically, concubinage was frequently voluntary, as it provided a measure of economic security for the woman involved. Involuntary, or servile, concubinage involves sexual slavery of one member of the relationship; typically the woman.

Concubinus

In Roman times, this was the title of a young male who was chosen by his master as a bedmate. They were often referred to ironically in the literature of the time. Catullus assumes in the wedding poem 61.126 that the young manor lord has a concubinus who considers himself elevated above the other slaves.

See also

• pilegesh
• polygamy
• polyamory
• Ma malakat aymanukum
• monogamy
• morganatic marriage
• harem
• cohabitation

References

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Rosales v. Battle (2003) 113 Cal.App.4th 1178 (California court decision involving status of concubine. Link requires free registration.)

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